Great Power, Great Responsibility: Ranking 'Spider-Man' Actors By Role Earnings

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Despite the amount of superhero media being made, from blockbuster films, to video games, to TV shows, audiences never seem to get sick of Spider-Man. The PlayStation open world game allowed fans to swing through the skyline, petting bodega cats and saving New Yorkers like the web-slinger himself. The critically acclaimed animated film Spider-Man: Into the Spider-Verse, featuring beloved hero Miles Morales, reminded fans that anyone can be Spider-Man.

Looking back at the three live action film series that brought Peter Parker to the big screen, each of the lead actors brought something different to the role. Each was also reportedly paid differently, for a variety of reasons. Fortunately, we may soon see these three actors together soon.

Here’s a look into how each of these actors was paid for paying Spider-Man:

Andrew Garfield

Andrew Garfield was the second cinematic Spider-Man, and portrayed Peter Parker across two films. Fans of the comics adored Garfield’s portrayal of wisecracking Spider-Man, always coming up with quips while fighting bad guys – something that he is notorious for in the comics but hadn’t been seen onscreen before.

For the first Spider-Man film that Garfield starred in, The Amazing Spider-Man was reportedly only paid $500,000. The film brought in a worldwide gross of $757.9 million, and was considered a success for Sony.

Reports say that Garfield was paid $1 million for the second film, The Amazing Spider-Man 2. The film brought in only $709 million worldwide, which is the least of the Spider-Man films, and likely contributed to the studios decision to cancel the third film.

Garfield was reportedly set to make $2 million for his appearance in the third film, but the film was never made. The reasons are still not entirely known. Aside from the slight dip in the response at the box office for the second film, there is the possibility that it was personal.

Sony was planning to announce “The Amazing Spider-Man 3” at a special event, but Garfield was sick with jet lag and couldn’t make it. One of the emails in the 2014 Sony hack implies that the studio chiefs took Garfield’s illness personally: "Here we are about one hour away from our Gala event and Andrew decides he doesn't want to attend,” the email alert read, “He has a rather scruffy beard and he just wants to be left alone."

In an interview with Guardian, Garfield stated that he was “naive” for thinking he could bring his vision of Spider-Man as a modern myth into the role in a big budget film: “I signed up to serve the story and serve this incredible character that I've been dressing as since I was three, and then it gets compromised and it breaks your heart. I got heartbroken a little bit."

We haven’t seen the last of Andrew Garfield’s Spider-Man though. The upcoming Spider-Man 3, starring Tom Holland as Spider-Man, will reportedly also feature Andrew Garfield as Peter Parker.

The first actor to take on the live-action Spidey for Sony is also reportedly in “Spider-Man 3” in his old role – Tobey Maguire.

Tobey Maguire

Sam Raimi’s films might not technically be the first time that Spider-Man appeared onscreen, but it was undoubtedly the first time that he appeared on the big screen for a mainstream, worldwide audience. The face of that Spider-Man was Tobey Maguire. Maguire’s Peter Parker might be older than the comic book version, but he perfectly represents the brainy science nerd that fans love.

For Spider-Man, Maguire reportedly received a salary of $4 million. The film grossed $821.7 million worldwide. For “Spider-Man 2,” Maguire was reportedly paid $17.5 million, as well as 5% of the back end – which would have been a significant sum. The second film did extremely well at the box office, making $373.6 million domestic gross and $783.8 million global gross. For the third installment, “Spider-Man 3,” the actor is reported to have made $15 million upfront with a 7.5% back-end deal. The third film set new opening weekend record, and grossed $890.9 million worldwide.

Plans for a fourth film were eventually scrapped. Director Sam Raimi assured fans that there was no drama and that the project just wouldn’t come together: “I was very unhappy with Spider-Man 3, and I wanted to make Spider-Man 4 to end on a very high note, the best Spider-Man of them all. But I couldn’t get the script together in time, due to my own failings, and I said to Sony, ‘I don’t want to make a movie that is less than great, so I think we shouldn’t make this picture. Go ahead with your reboot, which you’ve been planning anyway.”

Tom Holland

Corporate giants Sony and Disney finally came to an agreement that allowed Spider-Man to be featured in the Marvel Cinematic Universe – and that Spider-Man is Tom Holland. Of the three to play high-schooler Peter Parker, at 19 Holland is the only actual teenager. A third actor playing the same role in less than fifteen years is going to be fighting an uphill battle to make their mark – but Tom Holland has certainly made an impact gained an enormous amount of fans since the first time he appeared onscreen – even though that appearance was only a few minutes!

Tom Holland first appeared for a short cameo in 2016’s Captain America: Civil War. For his part in the film, it has been reported that Holland received $250,000.

In 2017, Holland was starring in his own film, Spider-Man: Homecoming. Reports say he was paid $1.5 million for his role in the film. The film made $880.2 million worldwide. Holland also featured in the massive blockbusters Avengers: Infinity War and Avengers: Endgame. Although there is no confirmation of Holland’s salary for these films, it’s likely that he is making a hefty sum. (There are even unsubstantiated claims that he is currently Sony’s highest paid star, but most take that with a grain of salt.) Holland has signed a six-picture deal with Marvel Studios – so chances are that his Spider-Man success is only just beginning.

Sources: The Street, Vulture, the things, FandomWire, Independent, Den of Geek, cbr, we got this covered, Showbiz CheatSheet